KATE WINSLET - LUC JACQUET: MAKING FICTION GAVE ME FREEDOM

LUC JACQUET: MAKING FICTION GAVE ME FREEDOM

Making a fictional feature film allowed director Luc Jacquet to realise childhood dreams, he has explained.

The French documentary maker, whose star rose after the shock success of 2005 Oscar-winner March of the Penguins, was speaking ahead of the release of his new film The Fox and the Child.

The Pathe release sees an unlikely friendship developing between the animal and young girl of the title, inspired by a chance moment from the director's own youth.

And when asked whether the film - narrated by Kate Winslet - was a wish fulfilment piece based on his own childhood in the mountains of Ain, he replied: "I think you've seen through me!"

He told inthenews.co.uk: "It's true that I never saw the fox I met that day again, so that encounter is a turning point for a story which for me had ended.

"But on top of that, I've added the whole of my experience from my career and put it in this film, especially in the ending and the conclusion that grown-ups can appreciate."

He continued: "The story was a fiction and called for a feature film, so it was not specifically a desire to do fiction but to tell this story. When you make a documentary, you and the narrator are often frustrated because you're limited and have to deal with what you have.

"In this case, I wanted to give myself the means to tell exactly what I wanted while keeping the energy and the authenticity of documentary-making."

The Fox and the Child is released on August 8th.